At an exhibition of the works of Vincent van Gogh, the Doctor and Amy
discover a disturbing image hidden in one of his paintings. Travelling
back to Provence in 1890, they discover that van Gogh is plagued by a
ferocious monster called the Krafayis that only he can see. As the time
travellers struggle to deal with an invisible monster, they must also
navigate the tortured artist's swings of mood, knowing full well that,
within two months, he will have taken his own life.

Production

Richard Curtis had been a well-known writer in Britain for many years. He
had gotten his start in television in partnership with Rowan Atkinson,
scripting both The Black Adder and Mr Bean, as well as
contributing to programmes such as Spitting Image, Casualty
and The Vicar Of Dibley. Curtis had also moved into film, writing
such popular comedy-dramas as Four Weddings And A Funeral,
Notting Hill, Bridget Jones's Diary and Love Actually
(which he also directed).

In 1985, Curtis founded Comic Relief with comedian Lenny Henry, and the
charity began holding biennial appeals on BBC1. This brought him into
contact with producer Sue Vertue, and for the 1999 edition of Comic
Relief, Curtis tasked Vertue's husband, Steven Moffat, with scripting
The Curse Of Fatal Death, a Doctor Who spoof starring
Atkinson. Curtis was not himself a big fan of Doctor Who, but in
2008, he was nonetheless contacted by Moffat with an offer to contribute
to the programme, for which Moffat was now the showrunner and executive
producer. Curtis considered Moffat's request for some time, and was
finally convinced after watching the 2008 Doctor Who Christmas
special The Next Doctor with his friend
and neighbour David Morrissey, who had guest-starred in the episode.

For many years, Curtis had wanted to write a story about the Dutch painter
Vincent van Gogh, but had been unable to find the proper venue for such a
project. Curtis was struck by van Gogh's battle with mental illness, and
especially his utter lack of success and appreciation during his lifetime,
in contrast to the phenomenal esteem in which his would work would
posthumously be held. Moffat was initially cool to Curtis' preferred
subject matter -- worrying that it was inappropriate for the Doctor
Who audience -- but was eventually persuaded by Curtis' ideas for the
script. It was agreed that Curtis would avoid focussing on the more sordid
aspects of van Gogh's life, such as the amputation of a portion of his
left ear. Curtis also elected to fictionalise some aspects of van Gogh's
timeline; for example, he set his script at the Yellow House which van
Gogh had rented at Arles from 1888 to 1889, but positioned this in June
1890, when van Gogh was living in Auvers-sur-Oise.

In writing his script, Curtis invited contributions from his teenaged
children, who had urged him to accept Moffat's invitation to work on
Doctor Who. It was his daughter Scarlett, for instance, who
suggested that the Krafayis (originally spelt “Crafayis”)
could be spotted by the Doctor in van Gogh's 1890 painting The Church
At Auvers, which was part of the collection of the Musée d'Orsay
in Paris. The Krafayis' invisible nature, meanwhile, was Moffat's idea.
For much of the story's development, there were in fact two of the
creatures, with the second choosing to commit suicide after van Gogh
inadvertently kills its mate rather than face the agony of loneliness.
Curtis wanted to call his script “Eyes That See The Darkness”,
based on the description of van Gogh as having “eyes that know the
darkness in my soul” in Don McLean's 1971 song Vincent,
inspired by van Gogh's Starry Night (1889). Moffat, however,
preferred a less abstruse title, and the adventure became Vincent And
The Doctor; this referenced the 1990 Robert Altman film Vincent &
Theo about the relationship between van Gogh and his brother
Theodore.

In order to achieve a believable representation of a nineteenth-century
French village, it was decided that many of the exteriors for Vincent
And The Doctor would have to be filmed abroad. To this end, Curtis'
script was paired with The Vampires Of
Venice to form Season Thirty-One's fifth production block,
directed by Jonny Campbell, part of which would take place in Trogir,
Croatia. While principal photography was scheduled to take place in
November and December 2009, Campbell made the unusual decision to film
material for one scene months earlier -- namely, the shot of the wheat
field used at the beginning of the episode, which would have been out of
season in late autumn. This footage was captured on August 20th at Penllyn
Farm Estate at Pentre Meyrick in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Three months later, the cameras were rolling again on Vincent And The
Doctor, with Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff posing as the Church at
Auvers on November 24th. The next two days were spent at Upper Boat
Studios recording the TARDIS scenes. Then, on the 27th, the material in
the Vincent van Gogh room at the Muséee d'Orsay was recorded at
Cardiff's National Museum of Wales. The cast was joined on this day by
Bill Nighy, who was making an uncredited appearance as Dr Black. Nighy had
never before appeared in Doctor Who, but had been a strong
contender for the role of the Ninth Doctor in 2004 -- and, indeed, had
been announced by some newspapers as having won the part before
Christopher Eccleton's casting was confirmed. Nighy was a good friend of
Curtis', and had appeared in Love Actually.

Campbell's team then travelled to Trogir, where filming began on November
30th. The first day was spent outside the city near Vrsine; this included
material at the edifice which would represent the exterior of the Yellow
House (as well as Vincent's bedroom), together with the scene of the
Doctor, Amy and Vincent lying in a field which was inspired by Starry
Night. On December 1st, the Café Toras in Trogir was dressed as
the establishment in van Gogh's 1888 work Café Terrace At
Night. The next two days were spent at Vrsine for more material at the
Yellow House; the shot of the funeral procession was also taped there on
the 2nd. It was back to Trogir on the 4th, with the discovery of Giselle's
body filmed at Capo Junction.

The next work for Vincent And The Doctor took place on December
8th, with a Trogir alley providing the site where the TARDIS lands in
Arles. The only recording for the episode on the 9th were some pick-up
shots for the café scene, completed alongside the River Pantan. The
last day in Croatia was December 10th, when Campbell filmed the Doctor's
melee with the Krafayis at Capo Junction, as well as the remaining TARDIS
exterior scene in which Vincent is escorted to the time machine.

Back in Great Britain, cast and crew spent two days at Sutton Farm in
Llandow on December 14th and 15th, for the remaining sequences in the
Yellow House. This was the last material to be filmed for Vincent And
The Doctor in 2009. Work in 2010 began on January 4th with several
insert shots on the TARDIS set at Upper Boat. Additional material in the
Church at Auvers was taped on the 5th, this time at Neath Abbey in Neath.
January 6th began with a return to the National Museum for footage both
within and without the Musée d'Orsay. The day continued with some
inserts, recorded at Upper Boat. On January 7th, some sequences outside
the Church at Auvers were filmed at Llancaiach Fawr near Nelson in
Treharris. Material in the confessional booth was also filmed there on the
8th, with this subsequently completed at Upper Boat on the 13th. Finally,
two months later, an insert of Vincent's chair in the Yellow House was
captured at Upper Boat.

In editing, Vincent And The Doctor was found to be vastly
overlength. It was eventually agreed that the episode would be broadcast
in a 50-minute timeslot as opposed to the usual 45 minutes, but Campbell
was nonetheless forced to excise a number of elements. Most notably, this
included several scenes involving Madame Vernet -- the mother of the slain
Giselle -- as well as the revelation that the Doctor knows of the Krafayis
from a book of scary stories he read as a child on Gallifrey. The latter
plot strand would have caused the Doctor to be jittery throughout his time
in Auvers, and would also have presaged the climactic revelation about the
Krafayis' handicap, since the book was titled Blind Fury. Given the
sensitive issues raised in the episode, it was also decided to conclude
the broadcast of Vincent And The Doctor with an onscreen graphic
offering information about a helpline for those affected by mental
illness.